Amplify! Ebook

Connect

Imagine being in a maze full of obstacles and many dead-end avenues without any sort of guide. It can be frustrating when you journey for awhile down paths that will eventually lead you to no destination. Life without purpose can be the same way.

If you do not understand whose you are, you cannot understand who you are. Our guide in this life is God.

I came across a verse the other week, and I found it to be practical in my own life. It comes from a familiar passage in the Bible, Psalm 119. However, I have never read into this particular verse until recently.

It is important if you want to be intentional and you want to live out God’s calling that you remain focused. Unfortunately, this world wants to serve you distractions, or worthless things as this verse shows, to allow you to venture down your journey with your eyes focused not on the Guide, but on your own desires and your own problems.

This morning, I was listening to a well-known song from Phil Wickham called “Glory”. I have listened to this song many times, but today I realized a few things in the song.

It got me to think about the glory of God, and how all of creation points directly to the creator. It is awesome how the God who created the universe wants to connect with us. He is not too busy, and you will never receive a voicemail when you call on Him.

God has a specific plan for your life, and He wants to use you to make His name known. In other words, God wants to use you to amplify His kingdom.

As you go through the day, realize that God does not need you. He does not need to use you to do amazing things; however, He does because of His love for humanity.

Life is a journey. The past few months for me have been a learning process. Maybe it is because real life is has hit me. Being out on your own a few hours away from home really allows one to rely on God. Throughout the past few months, my journey has been anything but easy.

Every day presents an opportunity for you to be refined by God or to be broken. It is a decision that each one of us have to make daily: will I follow God’s journey? Or will I decide to forge my own path for what I know is “best”?

Often times, the journey that God has you on will leave you confused, frustrated, and tired. I like to view these times as the waiting room period. If you are at a point in your life right now where you are not receiving any answers or clarity on anything, you are simply in God’s waiting room. It is important to recognize that these are the times God uses to prepare you for something amazing.

I have always viewed life as a story. However, I have never viewed it more seriously than I have recently. I am not just viewing my story more seriously, but I am also viewing others’ stories more seriously. Everyone has a story. I believe that in the craziness of life, most individuals never take time to connect with another individual’s story.

In a given day, one can walk in the downtown streets filled with people, and never actually have a conversation with anyone. Why? Because everyone is wrapped up in his or her own life.

Phone in hand. Head looking toward the ground. Not daring to make eye contact with anyone.

This is the life of most people every day.

I believe God has called us to more. I believe we have been called to connect with others on a more personal level than “How are you?”.

You may never know what someone is going through, and just taking a few moments to talk with someone could be significant.

Staying caught in the daily routine of life can often distract from God’s calling on your life. Everywhere I turn, I am in contact with individuals who seem to have no clear purpose.

Is this life really only about making advancements in one’s career? Or perhaps marrying that “perfect” someone? Or even living a decent life helping others?

My basic daily “routine” involves waking up early, starting classes in the morning, rushing to lab to conduct research until dinner time, and then study until I go to sleep. Until recently, I repeated this routine each day only to become more discouraged and frustrated the next day.

In college, you can have:

1. Social life

2. Sleep

3. Grades

But you can only choose two of the options. If you are a college student, I’m sure you have heard this many times. To a certain extent, it is true. But I believe God calls us to much more.

Music is one thing that drives culture today. After all, music is powerful. From serving as entertainment at concerts, local coffee shops, and bars to even being used as a therapy tool, music is powerful.

I believe that music is powerful enough to literally change one’s way of thinking and actions. What you allow to enter your ears will be processed by your brain (whether you realize it or not) and cause an emotional response.

Considering this, I think about the lyrics to popular songs. We all know the songs because they are overused on social media, played in grocery and department stores, and also played around town in random places.

This summer, I have been working for The First Tee, a golf and life lessons program for kids. I was wasn’t surprised to find that many of these kids (as young as five years old) know these songs. Although they do not know all of the terms and innuendoes in the songs, it is still being processed.

I have not published a blog post in awhile, so I wanted to share something with you all today.

Recently, I have been thinking a lot about connection. What I have seen is that many are losing touch with reality. Every day new social networks are being developed, and more people are “selling” their lives away to them all in efforts to become “famous”.

I heard a message this past weekend in church that discussed a few of these things, and I could not have agreed more. When used incorrectly, social networking is used to bring self-gratification and to serve as an ego boost to those who are willing to sell themselves to it.

However, there are many good uses for social networking, and I am in no way suggesting to stop using it. I am wanting to cause one to become aware of his or her own methods behind using it.

I wanted to share this video with you all today because it has a great message. It was created by one of my friends, Janine. We got in touch with each other through Twitter a few months ago, and it has been great to see the videos she has been working to produce.

I just wanted to let you know that there have been quite a few downloads for my new ebook. I am thankful for the support of those who have downloaded it so far.

If you haven’t gotten a chance to check it out yet, I would appreciate it if you downloaded it. The ebook is totally FREE! I wanted to give it away because I want to give back to those who have supported.